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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.01.22 ~ 2016.01.24

"The Revenant" keeps going despite "A Melody to Remember"...

The grizzly and gruelling "The Revenant" survived a narrowed encounter with Lee Han's "A Melody to Remember" (starring Im Si-wan and Go Ah-sung) to defend the top spot over the weekend. "The Revenant", director by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, has been nominated across an impressive number of categories for the upcoming Oscars, receiving twelve nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and (here's DiCaprio hoping) Best Actor.

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"The Revenant" had 796 screens from which to pool from, and from them, 399.9 thousand admissions came (26.5%); but Lee Han's "A Melody to Remember" snapped at its heels with 398 thousand (24.7%) from 854 screens, almost claiming the top spot for itself. Together the top two captured over 50% of the box office pie and banked over $5.4 million.

Pixar and Disney's "The Good Dinosaur" remained unmoved in third place with 146.6 thousand admissions (8.5%), as opposed to last weekend's haul of 270 thousand (12.4%), followed by a new entry from America: "The Big Short". Starring a dreamy cast, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, "The Big Short" has already made $87.1 million worldwide; in Korea, its first weekend saw 143 thousand flock ($1 million) to its screens (489), but it was unable to claim a podium finish because of "The Good Dinosaur".

Fifth place went to South Korea's Star Wars-killer, "The Himalayas" by Lee Seok-hoon. The film was released mid-December and captured the attention of cinephiles over the record-breaking "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (which has since been ejected from South Korea's Top Ten). Since its release, "The Himalayas" has made $49 million (7.6 million admissions), 84 thousand of which ($559 thousand) came from this past weekend.

Jo Kyoo-jang's romantic melodrama "Mood of the Day" with Yoo Yeon-seok and Moon Chae-won fell five places from second to sixth with just 83 thousand during its second week out (5.3%), pushing its total tally now to 577, or $2.8 million. A re-release of Woo Min-ho's "Inside Men" ("Inside Men: The Original") sat in seventh place (down two) with 67 thousand (4.4%), followed by a local animation by Ryoo Jeong-woo: "Tayo the Little Bus Movie: Rescue My Friend Ace". This 48-minute piece is Yoo Jeong-woo's second animated feature (his first being "If You Were Me - Anima Vision 2"), and its first-weekend run earned it the attention of just over 40 thousand filmgoers (3.16%).

Lastly, Korea's Top Ten was rounded out by two America films: "Goosebumps", based loosely on the children stories of R.L. Stone, which banked $255 thousand (40 thousand admissions), and the biopic "Steve Jobs" (which was released last Thursday) starring Michael Fassbender with 32.6 thousand (2%).

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.01.22 - 2016.01.24 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Revenant"   399 989 1 519 335
2 "A Melody to Remember" (오빠 생각) 2016/01/21 398 355 501 686
3 "The Good Dinosaur"   146 700 1 217 711
4 "The Big Short"   143 097 171 907
5 "The Himalayas" (히말라야) 2015/12/16 84 288 7 646 574
6 "Mood of the Day" (그날의 분위기) 2016/01/14 83 071 577 784
7 "Inside Men: The Original" (내부자들: 디 오리지널) 2015/12/31 67 789 1 989 509
8 "Tayo the Little Bus Movie: Rescue My Friend Ace" (극장판 꼬마버스 타요의 에이스 구출작전) 2016/01/21 59 737 68 544
9 "Goosebumps"   40 278 285 690
10 "Steve Jobs"   32 672 42 298
Korean movies only  
  "SORI: Voice from the Heart" (로봇, 소리) 2016/01/27 20 842 32 893
  "Pure Love - Movie" (순정) 2016/02/24 2 050 10 528
  "Pororo, Cyberspace Adventure" (뽀로로 극장판 컴퓨터 왕국 대모험) 2015/12/10 674 443 040
  "Remember You - Movie" (나를 잊지 말아요) 2016/01/07 474 423 857
  "Like a French Film" (프랑스 영화처럼) 2016/01/14 319 3 880
  "Cruel State" (나쁜 나라) 2015/12/03 305 19 413
  "JSA, The North and South Joint Elementary School" (JSA 남북공동초등학교, 2015)   272 784
  "The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale" (대호) 2015/12/16 143 1 761 078
  "Crazy For You" (진짜 진짜 좋아해, 1978) - Re-release   111 115
  "Inside Men" (내부자들) 2015/11/19 110 7 071 437

 

- C.J. Wheeler (@Woolgatherist )

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